1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the mixing in a container of contents having a base component and a component to be mixed.
The invention more especially relates to a mixing process, a spraying and dispersing device, especially designed for implementing the mixing process, and a mixing device, also especially designed for implementing the mixing process and including such a spraying and dispersing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A process for mixing contents that are in a container is already known, said process being of the type in which:                On the one hand,                    A container is provided that is equipped with means for introducing components of the contents that should be located therein and to which means for mixing said contents can be connected,            Components of said contents are provided of which at least one is substantially liquid (this component is conventionally referred to below as “base of the contents”) and at least one is designed to be mixed with the base of the contents (this component is conventionally referred to below as “component to be mixed”),                        Then, on the other hand, the components of the contents are introduced into the container, and the different components that are in the container are mixed.        
“Mixing” and “mixture” are defined as the operation and the result of the operation that consists in that several separate components form the same more or less viscous fluid phase or several phases with a high degree of homogenization.
A mixing process as was just described is provided, for example, in the case of biopharmaceutical fluids. It can then be implemented by means of a pocket of the type of the one that is described in the document FR-A-2 781 202.
The document FR-A-2 781 202 actually describes a pocket that is made of plastic material having two large walls and two gussets. Each gusset comprises two small walls that are connected to one another by an inside fold, and each small wall is connected to the large adjacent wall by an outside fold. Such a pocket, once expanded, assumes a three-dimensional shape (cylindrical, prismatic, parallelepipedic . . . ) and can have a volume of 50 liters and even more, which justifies that some call the pocket 3D.
In some cases, the component to be mixed is in substantially solid form, in block or in powder form, while being able to be dissolved in the base of the contents. Typically, such a component to be mixed, in the absence of an external action, can tend to float to the free surface of the base of the contents or to clump. The result is that the dissolution of the component to be mixed and its mixing in the base of the contents are made difficult.
To attempt to overcome this difficulty, it is proposed to initiate a strong, i.e., powerful, mixing operation, which in its turn poses other problems such as the appearance of foam. In addition, in some cases, the contents to be mixed can deteriorate if the mixing that it undergoes is powerful.
In other cases, the component to be mixed is not in solid form but, for example, in the form of a gel that is poorly miscible or even immiscible in the base of the contents. The high degree of homogenization that is then desired is made difficult to obtain.
The document US 2005/279687 describes a pressurized water-gas mixing device, quite especially designed for a multifunctional machine with oxidized water. The device in question comprises a hollow container that has, in the upper part, a water intake, a gas intake, a water-collecting means that is provided on the inside of the hollow container, having lateral perforations that form outlet openings for the nebulized water in the direction of the inside surface of the cylindrical wall of the hollow container. With such a device, the water is introduced via the intake and is collected in the collecting means. It exits from the collecting means by perforations and is sprayed on the inside surface of the cylindrical wall of the container. In its movement, it encounters the gas stream that is introduced into the device via the corresponding intake. Such a device is not designed for the implementation of a mixing process such as the one of this invention. In addition, if it comprises spraying and dispersing perforations, the latter do not allow the sprayed product to reach essentially the entire free surface of the contents of the container, whereby the sprayed product actually reaches the inside surface of the cylindrical wall of the hollow container.
There is therefore a problem when it is desired to mix in a container a base of the contents and a component to be mixed that is solid or immiscible or poorly miscible, when the latter tends to float to the free surface of the base of the contents or to clump, or cannot be mixed with the desired degree of homogenization, or else when the mixing operation is too powerful.